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summer days

Friday, June 21, 2013

On the first day of summer, ours finally feels like it’s begun. We’ve been out of school for 3 weeks, but busyness kept everyone in the family feeling like summer had not yet truly begun. Now, we’re in the throes of it, the good and the bad. The bad, because the littles take a bit of adjustment when the big kids come home. The good because….summer.

Let me first explain that I typically hate summer. It is just not my favorite season. I hate summer clothes; I like to be more covered up, thank you. I hate bugs. They love me though, and we live on the water, so I am unable to go outside even for a few minutes in the evenings without a minimum of ten bites as my reward. I also have a lengthy history of heat intolerance, thanks to the never-ending rewards of my autoimmune disease. I get sick easily in the heat, and I feel all-around terrible when it’s too warm. You can look back at our electric bills and tell the summers where my thyroid medicine is functioning normally and the ones where it’s not. This summer seems to not be so bad, since thus far I’ve been able to keep the thermostat at a higher temp than last year.

That said, I love summer for my kids. I love that they go outside in the morning, and we make them come back in at bedtime. I love sleepovers, baseball days, watching my son ride off with his fishing poles and tackle box, helping them set up sleeping bags on the top of the fort so they can sleep outdoors, seeing them in the shade reading books in the heat of the day, and the popsicle stickiness that covers their faces. This weekend, our inflatable pool goes up, and then we’ll have afternoons in the water followed by (hopefully) sleepy children at night. I love making our own routine, allowing for a late night sometimes if we need it because I know that we can allow late-risers to have their sleeping time in the morning.

I also love campfires and the fact that, at leastat most once a week, I can send my kids out with a pack of hotdogs and some marshmallows and not have to make dinner. I barely even feel guilty – we eat plenty of vegetables, and a weekly meal of hot dogs sure isn’t going to kill them. Go ahead and turn me in to the clean eating police. I don’t care. They’re eating enough fruit to put us in the poorhouse (man, is fruit expensive), so it’ll all even out in the end.